JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

Tonight, PBS aired a gripping and insightful “Frontline” show on the Catholic Church. If you haven’t seen it, go to the PBS website and watch it; it’s available on demand.

The  first part of the show focuses on Pope Benedict’s anemic attempt to deal with the sexual abuse scandal, as well as his failed attempts, before his resignation last year, to reform the Vatican government — the Curia — and the Vatican bank.

Pope Francis

Then the producers turn their attention to Pope Francis — to his genuine humility and spirituality, as well as to his renewed attempt to move ahead with the Curia and Vatican bank housecleanings.

Interestingly, though, near the very end of the 90-minute show, two Vatican experts spoke about how Pope Francis, for all the promising signals he is sending to the world, has not yet shown if he has a spine.

One of the experts, an Italian journalist named Sandro Magister, said, “So far, he has carefully avoided all issues that could lead to conflict.”

Those issues, he said, include gender and euthanasia.

Another expert, Robert Mickens, a reporter for The Tablet, a British publication that bills itself as “The International Catholic News Weekly,” then put his thumb on the issue that most of the world is waiting on Pope Francis to address:

“The real minefield in the life of the pope, because it’s such a big issue in the Catholic Church — and it’s not gone away, even though they’re singing hosannas to him right now — and that’s the sexual abuse of minors, clergy sex abuse.

“I know a lot of Catholics would like it to be over, but it’s not. We’re seeing new cases all the time. If the pope doesn’t come out and set very clear, transparent and public guidelines and make statements, I think this could cripple him.”

So far, Pope Francis has been extraordinary as a “feel good” pope. But, as Mickens suggested, this fish stinks to the core…And the question is whether the pope has the courage and conviction to gut the fish.

Finn

He could go a long way toward answering that question by making a “zero tolerance” statement on clergy sex abuse and, at the same time, removing Robert W. Finn as bishop of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

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For God’s sake, Finn is the walking, talking, breathing embodiment of why the church has gone so far astray! Why the church has lost millions and millions of members, including myself, my wife and many of our friends.

Finn owns the distinction, right her in our own beloved city, of being the only bishop who has ever been convicted in the long-running sexual abuse scandal.

Just to refresh: In September 2012, a Jackson County Circuit Court judge found Finn guilty of failing to report a Northland priest — Shawn Ratigan — who was an active pedophile. Finn’s crime was a misdemeanor, and he is on two years probation.

Despite the fact that it wasn’t a felony, his crime was breathtaking in its audacity and defiance of duty. 

Many people around here would love to have seen Finn led away in a handcuffed “perp walk” and imprisoned for what he did, and didn’t, do.

And yet, he has stayed on as bishop — has resisted all calls to resign — and there has been no indication he is in hot water with the pope.

Recently, however, a group of Kansas City Catholics has brought intense pressure on Rome to do the right thing and purge the church of the Finn cancer.

With help from the Rev. James E. Connell, a priest and canon lawyer in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, the Kansas City group sent letters to the Vatican’s representative in Washington to be forwarded to Pope Francis. The letters call for the pope to oust Finn as bishop.

As reported Feb. 14 in The New York Times, no less, the forwarded materials included letters from a nun and 13 parishioners and a petition signed by more than 113,000 people worldwide.

The Times story said that Father Connell cited Canon 1389 in the church’s Code of Canon Law, which says that a person who harms another by using or failing to use his “ecclesiastical power” should receive a “just penalty.”

The law doesn’t suggest what constitutes a “just penalty,” but it’s abundantly clear to us in Kansas City, is it not, what that would mean as it pertains to Bishop Finn?

As long as Finn remains bishop, he stands as a symbol of a church that still tolerates the violation of innocent children by clergymen. That is totally unacceptable.  

Let’s hope this pope, who has quickly built up such an aura of good will and high expectations, has the spine to deal forthrightly with the sex-abuse scandal and that he will start by taking away Robert W. Finn’s staff and mitre.

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On another subject, I just saw (Wednesday morning) on The Star’s website that the state executed Michael Taylor early today. I’m very surprised that he didn’t get a stay, but, I have to admit, I’m glad he’s dead.

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster issued this statement:

“Over 9,100 days have passed since the morning Michael Taylor and Roderick Nunley kidnapped 15-year-old Ann Harrison as she waited for her school bus. Taylor and Nunley raped her, repeatedly stabbed her, and left her to die in the trunk of a stolen car. Taylor spent 20 years attempting to convince the courts to overturn his death sentence – five years longer than Ann Harrison lived on this earth. Please take a moment to keep Ann and her family in your thoughts and prayers.”

Now. let’s finish up this business and give Nunley his “just penalty.” I bet he’s squirming pretty good right now.